ARLINGTON -- As the Skip Schumaker era of the Rangers begins to take flight, all eyes will be on the offense going into 2026. Hitting coach Justin Viele knows as much.
The Rangers had one of the best offenses in baseball in 2023, but after two years of below-average offensive output, Viele -- now in his second season with the club -- is in charge of righting the ship.
Viele started out as part of a three-person hitting staff with offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and assistant hitting coach Seth Connor last season. The Rangers dismissed Ecker on May 5, when the offense was tied for 25th in wRC+ (80), 25th in slugging (.358), tied for 25th in batting average (.227), 28th in on-base percentage (.284), 29th in runs (113) and 29th in walk rate (6.7%).
Things got marginally better under new hitting coach Bret Boone, who had never held a coaching job at any level before taking the job. By the end of the season, they ranked 25th in wRC+ (92), 26th in slugging (.381), 26th in batting average (.234), 26th in on-base percentage (.302), 22nd in runs (684) and 23rd in walk rate (8%).
Viele, along with new hitting coaches Alex Cintron and Eric Dorton, are now charged with changing the entire offensive philosophy for 2026.
“I'm trying to make sure these guys know what they do really well and how that feeds into our offense collectively,” Viele said at Globe Life Field on Thursday. “If we're trying to have a lot of guys do what they're not good at, it takes away from who they are as hitters.
“I think in a lot of our conversations with those guys, we're trying to build an understanding: ‘This is what you do really well, and if you do this really well, you help the Texas Rangers score runs.’ If you were always trying to pick out what they do poorly, now these guys don't have any confidence going in there.”
Outside of Corey Seager, who posted a 138 wRC+ in 102 games, the majority of Rangers position players regressed in 2025. Wyatt Langford (118 wRC+), Evan Carter (107) and Josh Smith (100) are the only hitters who produced at an average to above-average level.
President of baseball operations Chris Young has said multiple times this offseason that the best way for the Rangers to improve in 2026 will be the internal hitters playing to the best of their ability. Viele and the hitting coaches will have to figure out how to make that happen.
“For example, we're not expecting Cody Freeman to hit the ball 110 [exit velocity] to center field for homers, but we're expecting him to make a lot of contact and be a tough at-bat,” Viele explained. “We're not expecting [Josh Jung] to walk at 12%, but we're expecting him to get hits and do some damage. What makes those guys feel the most confident is if we're boosting what they do well, instead of always picking out what they don't do well, playing to their strengths.”
What matters just as much as internal improvements is putting together the best team to hit in Globe Life Field’s adjusted park factors. The ballpark, which opened in 2020, has increasingly become more of a pitchers' park, with dramatic changes from '23-25.
Quite simply, the ball is not flying in Arlington the way it used to, and the Rangers need to find a way to produce in spite of it.
“I think there's a little bit more of a need to manufacture runs and have more at-bat quality and grind pitchers down a little bit more when the ball is not flying and you can't rely on slug,” Viele said. “Really, it's got to be a mentality shift. We can't let that affect who we are as hitters. Just because the ball is not flying, it can't take anything away from what you do. You still need to be who you are. You can't let that affect your next 10 swings.
"That's something that we have to do a better job of as coaches, is not feeding into the park and how it's not flying the way it does. Ultimately, we have to find other ways to score. We have to be multidimensional. We can't just rely on homers to win games.”